Re: Multi-partitioning Lemote boxen

["John D. Baker" <jdbaker%mylinuxisp.com@localhost>]

I updated to 7.99.51 on the NFS root installation and booted the machine.
After cleaning up from the previous hang, I mounted all the FFS filesystems
on the USB-attached SATA disk and extracted the sets onto the disk.  I
ran the MAKEDEV script to populate the new "/dev" directory.  This went
without problems.

I then went to clone my "/etc" and "/usr/pkg/etc" directories from the
NFS root onto the disk using a 'tar' pipeline.  At this, the machine
froze hard and I had to power-cycle it and clean up again.

Following that, I again mounted the partitions that would become root
and "/var" on the new disk, cloned the directories and adjusted "fstab"
for the new arrangement.  I then rebooted the machine, dropped to the
PMON command line and booted from the USB-attached SATA disk.

My adjustments for a custom kernel were insufficient as it still tried
to mount root from "wd0a", completely ignoring the USB-attached "sd1a".
My specification of "type ffs" filesystem only complicated matters as
it seemed reluctant to prompt for root device, appearing to swallow my
keystrokes without echo and appearing to ignore carriage-return until
after it had been pressed again.

Eventually, I convinced it to mount root from "sd1a" and it has finished
coming up.  I've since made my kernel config more explicit for the "sd1"
kernel variant.

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